If AI does the work, how will rising talent thrive?

15 Dec 2024

“How can we scale this business and eliminate the human capital line item?”

“Eliminate the juniors who, for lack of a better word, are doing the grunt work and replace that with AI.”

This is the unspoken reality of the types of conversation boards and investors are having or will have over the next 3 years.

Management will be asked and it’s being seen in RFI’s “AI thick staffing plan versus a human thick staffing plan, and what are my cost savings?”

As the barrier to creating becomes more and more commoditised. How will people build a career in the industry?

If the high level thinking is already done. The hardcore strategy. The day-to-day work that we’ve all learnt, failed, tested, succeeded, elevated our careers through doing. If that is all done by AI, how will the next gen of talent thrive?

My gut is that our differences, our imperfections, our taste, our POV. Become some of our biggest USPs.

Pair that with giving fresh thinking to brands' largest challenges. Using our critical thinking, creative ingenuity, armed with tools like Midjourney, Claude, Springboard etc. If you can get to the crux of the problem, form ideas, design, direct, articulate and sell them in. Also be easy to work with and honest. Then you’re adding value at every stage.

We will probably see the £50m+ rev 20 person agency at some point over the next decade. Human led, tech enabled.

Our productivity and impact will multiply massively.

But our challenge is how we create an environment for talent to thrive, come through the ranks in a space where they can test, learn, try stuff out all whilst being paid fairly, in good conditions that elevate their careers and positively progress our industry…

Quotes from "Confessions of an agency founder and chief creative officer on AI’s threat to junior creatives"